Yankee Brew News Archive

Boston: New England's Brewpub Heaven

Originally Published: 10/96

By: Brett Peruzzi

Never in my most hopeful, hop-fueled dreams did I think that a decade after Commonwealth Brewing Company opened, as Boston's first modern-day brewpub, that it would happily co-exist with eight others.

Such a scene was at that time the vision of idealists; that virtually every downtown section of a city would be within walking distance of a pub serving its own fresh beer. Now the dream is a reality for thousands of Bostonians and the millions of visitors the Hub draws every year.

Sitting in my day-job office in the Financial District, I used to marvel at my fortune of being but a five-minute walk out the front door from Commonwealth Brewing Company. Now I can go out the back door and be at the Fort Hill Brewhouse in two minutes, conveniently about halfway to the subway line that carries me homeward. And that same subway, with a few line changes, will bring me to the other seven brewpubs in Boston and Cambridge in less than half an hour.

With a pocketful of subway tokens and enough time, you can go on a Boston brewpub tour that rivals any of the great beer meccas of the West Coast. And this is no procession of generic chain brewpubs either. While a few have common owners, the pubs offer a broad variety of beers, cuisines, settings, and related amenities.

When the decade began, it was easy for me to have tasted every beer poured in Boston's few brewpubs. Now, I'm faced with the classic dilemma of being in a beer mecca: so many beers, so little time. If the rest of the decade is anything like the first half, my dilemma is going to become even more bittersweet.